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In case anyone missed this on the AIDSMEDS homepage, Anderson Cooper will host a one-hour show that addresses the 30th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis--where we've been and where we're going. It will air on CNN Friday, January 14th at 9pm. I've already set my TIVO. He talks to many celebrities in this special, according to the report. I hope they talk to every day people who survived, lost family and friends, and researchers.

Thanks! I would have missed it. You might set your recorder to extend an extra 30 min or more just incase. Long ago I tired to set taping a special on Jim Jones and his cult, and it went over and I missed the second half. In fact, Im setting my dvr for 2 hours.

Here comes the wave of anniversary coverage: Anderson Cooper will address the 30th anniversary of the first AIDS diagnosis with a one-hour special, according to a CNN statement. CNN will air “Hope Survives: 30 Years of AIDS” on Friday, January 14, at 9 P.M. Eastern time. Cooper’s show will include an in-depth interview with Elton John on the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Cooper will also talk with Anthony Fauci, MD, Phill Wilson, Mondo Guerra and Mo’nique. The special will show clips from celebrities—including Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Barry Manilow, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Margaret Cho, Maya Angelou and Jeanne White Ginder (Ryan White’s mother)—on the “deciding moment” that led them to join the fight against AIDS. It was on June 5, 1981, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published its first report on what became known as AIDS.

30 years of AIDS and the focal point is an in-depth interview with Elton John? 30 years of AIDS! Elton John? Really?

I'm not going to say it's a bad thing that Cooper is doing this program. Nevertheless there is something fundamentally wrong with making this mainly a celebrity-related event. Even though some of them have made notable contributions to fighting the epidemic. It's more of that friggin' American celebrity mentality which we absolutely do not need more of.

And as Joe has pointed out, ONE HOUR! WOW! An entire hour. Pro-rated for for 30 years = 2 minutes per year.

How about at minimum a week-long series of programs which would allow much more coverage including from those living with the virus as well as others working in the epidemic. And for instance some hard analysis of how over 4,000 in the U.S. are now on waiting lists for ADAP, with the list growing daily. And that unless the infection rate is effectively reduced the epidemic cannot be gotten under control.

There will be more attention paid this year to it being the Centennial of Ronald Reagan, (ugh it sickens me to even write his name!), he and his cronies who bear murderous responsibility for the tragically inadequate response in the late 80s and early 90s to epidemic. I'd say exhume him for his 100th and toss his remains into a dumpster in name of all of those who died in those years. I'm betting that Cooper will give scant attention to that failure on St. Reagan's part.

So nice try, Anderson, but no cigar on this one. Of course I haven't seen the program so this is my prejudicial anticipation exploding all over the place. And I am ok with that.

Apparently, given the content of Reagan's son's new book, his poor decisionmaking might all neatly be chalked up to Alzheimer's disease.

Leave it to a Reagan, to now claim that his father's insensitivity and inhumanity regarding HIV was due to Alzheimer's disease. Nice try, pure BULLSHIT. Why not tell the real truth about Ronnie? His beliefs are still alive and well, 30 years later, as reflected in the current Republican party. Last time I checked, Alzheimer's caused one to become confused and forgetful... not insensitive and uncaring.

Anderson Cooper has real charm, and he goes through all the paces of being a real TV journalist, so I always give him a pass when he's such a star-fucker and son of the American aristocracy.

While its a pity its only an hour and a star fuck, the program will be better than nothing and maybe good.

He has come so far out of the closet this past year its amazing to me that some Americans still don't realize he's gay.

I am very happy its been a year that the two daily news shows I wont miss are hosted by homos, who are both so charming yet go about their business seriously enough. Maddow's "brilliant geek" routines always play well off her keen reporting and analysis. Anderson is almost always a lightweight, though he's capable of great documentary journalism sometimes. Also love him when he's doing showbizzy stuff, onscreen but "off work" (not as a journalist) for instance his repartee with Kathy Griffin. There was a rumor he charmed the pants off Daniel Craig in the garden of the Vanity Fair party.

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“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

There is a french writer who sometimes reminds me of Kramer - Didier Lestrade. He's been through the whole hell mess of it. He's very fiercely anti-bareback. He's forever holding everyone in France, and sometimes the US, up for a thorough reading of possible meanings - against the media grain. From Porn Stars to activists to gay guys to Pharma to disco promoters to scientists, to everyone finally.

What a disappointment that special was and actually, I didn't see any thing special about it at all. Anderson seemed like he knew next to nothing about HIV and he confirmed that by repeating that tired old mantra that HIV is now CHRONIC AND MANAGEABLE. What struck me as the most insulting however, was his asking people, who are not poz, what the new medications meant to them? WTF? It's like asking me what I think of birth control pills, when I have never needed, let alone used one.

In my opinion, it was one big cluster-fuck, let's kiss the ass of people who know almost nothing about HIV or what it is really like to live as a poz person. Other than that, it was crap.

Wow, from my perspective, that show really sucked. The guy with the grey beard said he was diagnosed in 1981(Not possible. HIV wasn't established until 1985, after a fight between DR. Gallo and the french.)

Then this same person said "I take my meds and go on with my life."

Really. Talk about sugar coating. He has no problems at all? Great. Now everyone who saw this show thinks HIV is a walk in the park.

This guy did a dis service to his own community. Though I'm not sure what world he lives in.

I'm usually all for any press HIV/AIDS gets. I am seriously going to rethink that. Through my eyes, this show was more harmful than good. By far. And I agree, one hour does such a complex issue no good.

Fauci trotting out the truvada-as-prophylaxis story irked me (why bother funding ADAP, etc. when we have a preventative drug? ); but at least he shot down the nonsense about the "cure" - the Berlin cure - as being impractical.

but just like others here, people at my clinic, and even myself to an extent, many more people today do have the experience of taking their meds and going on with their lives. HIV is many things to many people, and a portion of HIV+ are having fewer issues today. For many HIV is not chronic and manageable; for many it is. It's not this guy's fault that he was able to portray his experience, it's Cooper's fault for not presenting the equally true issue of people have issues/problems.

I was also irked by the non-infected celebs talking about how HIV had affected them Oh I understand that this epidemic has affected many people both directly and indirectly, but a little more from those directly affected would have been good (like talking about how it's not always chronic and manageable). but without celebs many average people probably would have tuned out - like a lot probably did anyway.

of course what can you expect from an hour show covering 30 yrs? why even the initial timeline in the intro barely showed anything and went by too fast.

« Last Edit: January 15, 2011, 12:32:15 AM by leatherman »

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leatherman (aka mIkIE)

All the stars are flashing high above the seaand the party is on fire around you and meWe're gonna burn this disco down before the morning comes- Pet Shop Boys chart from 1992-2015Isentress/Prezcobix

What I took from the show, and it reflects the changes I have seen on this site.

AIDS is terrible. It has taken a toll too horrible to measure.

But new drugs are out, and if someone is capable of obtaining them (keeping a job with insurance, a measure of personal success) then it stands a large, if not total chance of being No Big Deal.

This is much like the argument about resistance a few years back (that still resurfaces now and again) which asserted that poor lifestyle choices (missing doses, having depressive episodes, and the like) was the main cause, and assigned blame to those who experienced resistance.

There exists the notion, thanks in no small part by aggressive (and often subversive) efforts by the Pharma Industry to promote HIV meds as completely non-intrusive with no side effects and no problems procuring them.

So when people DO report problems, they are often dismissed by doctors (and sadly, by people on forums) as being caused by "character defects" such as depression and substance abuse.

The notion of the precarious life that comes with HIV, that even when insurance is in place, and the meds used to treat it cause no direct short-ish term effects, is not addressed to any length. We all know business well enough to know that a sudden spike in insurance rates (absolutely noticed in any organization with fewer than 100 employees) will send red flags and can easily end with the identification of, and subsequent termination of, the employee who is impacting their rates.

This is far from unheard of. It is part and parcel of the paid healthcare system.

Add to this all the salient commentary by Kramer (who is the closest thing we have to a Moffie at this point) regarding the aura of gay subjugation that fuels the behaviors that promote HIV infection. From anti-gay sentiment that still runs strong (look at the comments section in the Charlotte-Observer online edition, supporting the elected official who wishes to deny funding for those with HIV) to the completely useless process by which we are placed on disability, then disallowed the slightest efforts to return to society.

The harshest thing Kramer mentioned was the lack of new leadership in the HIV/AIDS forefront. The old guard are mostly dead. Or disabled and unable to put in the effort. And sadly, no one voice (or series of voices) seems to be taking their place.

As for solutions? I don't have any. Neither does Cooper, and sadly, neither does Kramer. We will all do our level best to help until such time as we physically cannot. But at some point, these reigns need to be taken by stronger and more capable hands.

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"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

Didn't expect they would tell me anything about HIV I don't already know.

I knew from get-go that I would know more than would be shown or told in this program.

But then again this program wasn't for concerned, educated people living with the disease. This was not a show for us here. (I mean if you're a pozzie and were expecting answers, you'd really be better off talking to your doctor. LOL) This was for those few who would watch it and not change the channel. This was at least some answer to the problem of HIV/AIDS not headlining the news anymore.

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leatherman (aka mIkIE)

All the stars are flashing high above the seaand the party is on fire around you and meWe're gonna burn this disco down before the morning comes- Pet Shop Boys chart from 1992-2015Isentress/Prezcobix

As I feared, this turned into one big celebrity orgy. I had hoped they would have given at least 15 mins to regular people. Even Dr. Fauci didn't get that much time. They give Lindsey hours of coverage on CNN. I guess anything is better than nothing, but this was a huge disappointment. No discussions about funding. I would hope CNN plans to do more than just this one hour. No discussions about Reagan. I think the title was very misleading. Huge disappointment!!!!

Modified:

As others said, an hour for 30 years?? With the commercials, it was more like 45 minutes. We have all seen CNN and other networks go without taking a commercial break for over an hour for police car chases. Maybe we're expecting too much from CNN. I sometimes think Jon Stewart is too hard on CNN. But, I totally get it. They claim to be the reasonable voice to MSNBC and FOX with just the facts and in-depth coverage. However, they always fail to deliver.

Leatherman, you make an excellent point about the unbalanced report. It was a very "Clean" show, every thing buttoned up nice and tidy, with no opposing view to the neat and clean comments by the bearded fellow I quoted. Your correct, it's not his fault that he expressed his experience. But I found it unusual, to say the least, that he just takes his pills as if it were like taking vitamins, and has never suffered during his 30 years of being poz. I just don't think he rea;LL thought that answer through and didn't give the question the attention it deserved. His answer was so sterile.What does the viewer take from this? Aids is no big deal, of course. I think most in this forum would puke at the thought of that.To jkinatl comment about leadership. Right on. There is not one strong voice and there is clearly a lack of leadership. I feel like I'm caught in "no where land." I am in the category of those who are no suffering on a daily basis. I'm in constant pain, both physical and mental. The show made me like everything has passed me by, and my life and experience with HIV/AIDS is somewhat midigated. I'm caught between those who live normal lives, and those who have been through the mill, and fully understand the pain and the suffering that HIV/AIDS has bestowed upon so many. After this show, I felt angry. The only thing, I feel, left to do, is to tell my story. I have been working on it since 2006. I'm lucky to find an hour during a given day to fell good enough to work on it. I have per servered because I believe my story is important and may someday contribute to the understanding, if only in a small way, to the larger picture of this complex issue.I have to. After this show, It made me realize I must do it, to maintain my sanity, and pay tribute to those whose lives I have known. I owe it to my wife who passed in 1999 and was part of an NIH study of experimental drugs. The study cost her her life. And it helped to determine what drugs other should NOT take.This show has given me an energy to complete my story. And I'm grateful for that.( Sorry for this lengthy post)

I won't give AC his pass this time. Isn't he going to be a daytime host, soon? Hmm, doesn't bode well for the contents.

I am going to try to remember what Larry Says - that it really is the plague. Remembering this helps keep the "pop the pill and get on with it" version in proper context.

A year or two (2007?) before I seroconverted (2008) I read that there was some kind of epidemiological and statistical explanation to expect that more than HALF of gay guys over 50 would one day be HIV+.

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“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

I also watched it. I will freely admit I have a major league crush on Anderson Cooper so I gave him a pass for this utterly vanilla "special." When I realized it would accomplish nothing of significance, I used the time wisely by just focusing on my schoolboy crush...it sure made the hour pass more joyfully!

"Note: Anderson Cooper did a special last night (jan. 14, 2011) about 30 years of aids. for the most part it was a pretty lackluster and bloodless affair, with the exception of a magnificent appearance by elton john and a moving one by mo’nique. the rest of it was pretty much pablum, recycled stuff from eons of too familiar footage, and appearances by people with nothing new or challenging to offer. while the producer spoke to me for hours to pick my brains, he made it plain from the beginning that i was not going to be asked to be on the show because of my outspokenness (and because i threatened jokingly—yeah right—to ask Anderson when he was going to come out and be seen with his boy friend publicly), which, when i heard the cast of who was going to appear, was fine with me. instead, i was invited to write this opinion piece to say what they would not welcome on the show.

“what troubled me most about the show was anderson himself. it was a noble gesture for a reporter, closeted or not, to put on an aids special, but did he have to be such a wimp on it himself? reporters are meant to ask questions, and good questions (anderson once had a reputation for doing just that; what in the world has happened to him?); the questions anderson asked were puerile beyond belief. he challenged no one with anything. is that what good reporters do? he had america’s leading aids doctor, anthony fauci, on: how could anderson not challenge him with some of the points that i made below (in a piece anderson’s folks asked me to write for him)? or indeed to raise one single point anywhere else on the show that i write about below.

"the most honest part of the program came at the very end when he asked elton (whom anderson kept fawningly deferring to as 'sir elton;' even elton gave him a look as if to say, enough of that already, boy), if he was positive about the future. elton, after a long pause, a very long pause, where you could see this great man deciding whether to say what he really thought, which was 'no i am not hopeful about the future,' mumble some painful words along the lines of 'after thirty years we are still here talking about the same things!' and then he too offering up a platitude of hope, disingenuous in the extreme one wonders why anderson put on the show at all. at least he gave me the chance to write this piece. it appears to have had a goodly number of facebook recommendations (evidently the be-all and end-all of today’s pulse taking) along with some thousand of the nastiest, most hateful comments imaginable. i am told this is usually the case with posted comments: the nutcases are ready and waiting to pounce. still it is always disheartening to see in black and white the visible manifestations of just the hate i speak of in my article below.

larry”-----------------------------------

The article Larry refers to has been linked above. It's important enough, I think, to post it here:

“New York City (CNN) — I want this article to break your heart. But it deals with a subject that has had a tough time of it in the break-everyone’s-heart department. I’ll bet that a number of you will be more angry at me than sympathetic by the time you finish reading it. If indeed you finish reading it.

From its very beginning, most people have not wanted to know the truths about AIDS. This is an indisputable fact that continues until this very minute. I have been on the front lines since Day 1, so I know what I’m talking about.

Here are 10 realities about AIDS, and I’ve learned them the hard way:

1. AIDS is a plague — numerically, statistically and by any definition known to modern public health — though no one in authority has the guts to call it one.

2. Too many people hate the people that AIDS most affects, gay people and people of color. I do not mean dislike, or feel uncomfortable with. I mean hate. Downright hate. Down and dirty hate.

3. Likewise, both people who don’t have sex the way they do (if they have it at all) and people who take drugs in order to feel better in a world that they find wretched are considered two highly expendable populations by the powerful forces that control this world.

4. AIDS was allowed to happen. It is a plague that need not have happened. It is a plague that could have been contained from the very beginning.

5. It is a plague that is not going to go away. It is only going to get worse.

6. There is no cure and the amount of money expended toward finding one is pathetically small, miniscule, puny, and totally indicative of a system and a government and a country and a world that does not want to end this plague.

7. There is no incentive for pharmaceutical companies to find a cure since they are making billions selling, at highly inflated prices, the many anti-viral drugs that those infected must consume — drugs that only keep us living but still infected just enough to continue to possibly still infect others.

8. Educational campaigns, indeed all attempts at prevention, have been too stupid, useless, lily-livered, and nicey-nicey to accomplish much of anything.

9. There is no one of any use really in charge of this plague, in America or anywhere else in the world — and it is a worldwide plague by now — and this lack of decent, responsible and humane leaders has been so since its beginning in 1981. They lie to us. I consider most of those who have been or are in charge as equal to murderers.

10. One out of every five men who have sex with men in America is now HIV-positive, and more than 50% of gay men do not know it. Doctors in Chelsea say the statistics for that New York neighborhood have jumped from one out of five to one out of four. At the rate things are going, almost all gay men in America could be HIV-positive, which a lot of people would really like to see happen.

These are appalling statistics, appalling statements, appalling facts, and yet no one responds to them when I raise them. Why should they? Too many people want too many other people dead, and it is fearful and as we continue to see over and over, often dangerous to confront them.

Governments and bureaucrats and presidents and politicians and the people who run this world lie to people. They tell us HIV is under control. They tell us case numbers are decreasing. They tell us that all is being done that can be done. They tell us HIV is too complicated to eradicate. They tell us gay people and people of color have made more progress than ever before. These are all lies.

We must not believe them. How could we when, in one place or another:– They also tell us we can’t get legally married.– They also tell us that we cannot legally adopt children.– They also tell us religions will not recognize us.– They also tell us we can’t serve our country yet.– They also tell us our real history cannot be taught in schools.– They also tell us that gay students cannot organize in schools.– They also tell us that people who murder us are not committing hate crimes.– They also tell us we cannot insure our partners.– They also tell us our partners are not legal.– They also tell us we cannot have equal opportunities.– They also tell us we can’t kiss each other or hold each other’s hands in public.– They also tell us that our Supreme Court doesn’t want to know about any of this, doesn’t want to make us free and equal, doesn’t want to honor the Bill of Rights.

If you want to know why AIDS is a plague, I have just told you why.

I could add a thousand more “they also’s.” I could expound and expand and add so many facts and figures to the above they’d put you to sleep. I helped start the two major AIDS organizations in America. I have watched almost everyone I once knew die.

For some 30-plus years, I have been trying to tell the world where this plague came from and why, and I will continue to do so until I die, too.

You see, I simply can’t get the memories and the ghosts of just about every friend I had out of my life. And since there is no doubt in my mind that this plague of HIV/AIDS that took them from me was and continues to be allowed to happen, I am duty bound to tell this hideous history as best and as fully as I can. It’s the least I can do.

That is correct: This plague of HIV/AIDS was intentionally allowed to happen. It still is. Nothing has changed in the intentionality department. Hate has a way of hanging around forever and too often winning out in the end.“

« Last Edit: January 15, 2011, 07:52:20 PM by edfu »

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"No one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences."--Albert Camus, "The Plague"

"Mankind can never be free until the last brick in the last church falls on the head of the last priest."--Voltaire

Just as Elton said last night, he was disgusted with his behavior in the beginning of this epidemic, maybe Anderson is making progress in his own life towards admitting/accepting who he is. The show was lame, but to "come out" in the public eye has to be horrendous. Perhaps these are his babysteps?

I applaud his lame efforts. Better to have someone of his caliber addressing the issues than to ignore it entirely. I know it's an over-simplied view, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Mostly because he is so totally hot.

Kathy Griffin pushes him out of the closet all the time with winks and innuendo, to which he willingly submits because he says OK to be with her.

I think he is not a closet case. He just doesn't announce it publicly. But last year he really pursued some stories where it was obvious his vested interest.The harrassment of the gay student president at U o Michigan, case in point. I think he milked that story much longer than any viewer was interested in. I wonder if that was accidental or a kind of Freudian slip - maybe he was blind to the over investment - but I doubt it.

(Oh, could I please have back the 2 hours I just spent chatting with a denialist, online? WTF is it with those people? I don't get the dedication to denial. Its maddening to discuss. They simply don't see their poor rationales. Their own denial...)

We also don't know what contract he had to get that show. I think things have changed greatly just in the last year or two, about what mass audience will deal with and find ultimately uninteresting. I don't think ANYONE right or left has given Rachel Maddow any smack about being lesbian. So maybe AC sees that he doesn't have to be so hush hush. Also, he IS getting older. Time to mellow, be more truthful. Hes doing up that great house in the west village. He's hardly in the closet socially.

« Last Edit: January 16, 2011, 12:17:36 AM by mecch »

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“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

Can someone please explain #4 to me. How was it allowed to happen?? How could it have been contained?? Just really confused by that.

Teresa

I was wondering the same thing. If the Reagan administration would have jumped into action, it could have prevented so many deaths by possibly having meds sooner than they came. It could have reduced stigma and possibly lowered infection rates. But, I just don't see how it could be contained. Even in the 80's when people knew it was a certain death sentence, millions still had tons of unprotected sex. Yes, people began to be more careful at that time, but you still had so many very willing to do bareback knowing this deadly virus was out there. I don't think it could have been contained.

To me Anderson Cooper is like Geraldo Rivera was back in the day. Anderson has his white hair, Geraldo has his mustache. Both are quasi minorities. Both are "news personalities" who try to create an image of the tough investigative reporter.

I didn't watch Anderson the other night. In fact, I haven't seen Anderson Cooper, In quite some time. I really wasn't all that interested in watching it anyway.

I am just not a fan of Anderson Cooper. I don't care if he's straight, gay or bi. I've seen better documentaries done by others. I will admit that he covered Katrina well, as well as other disasters, but reading the reviews this show, I am glad I didn't take the time to watch it.

I don't like the way he interviews. He's too passive, and doesn't press hard enough at times.And his stammering at times drives me nuts.I agree with Ford, in the above post. He tries to create an image of tough investigative reporting,....But I think he's got a long way to go.

Can someone please explain #4 to me. How was it allowed to happen?? How could it have been contained?? Just really confused by that.Teresa

It is difficult to answer your question in brief (at least I find it so). During the early 1980s AIDS spread unchecked in the U.S. while a wide array of our must trusted institutions ignored or denied the threat. The epidemic was allowed to spread widely before it was taken seriously.

The federal government put budget ahead of the nation's welfare; health authorities lied, covered up, and placed political expediency before public health, terrified of causing a panic; scientists were more concerned with international prestige than with saving lives; gay leaders and organizations were more concerned with preserving sexual freedom than in suggesting how infection might be curtailed; the media couldn't be bothered with an illness that at first seemed to affect only gay men.

If you want to understand this essential history (and I believe all HIV-positives should), I highly recommend reading "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic," by Randy Shilts. It's a masterpiece of investigative reporting on one of the greatest catastrophes of modern history, covering in detail the years 1980 to 1985.

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"No one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences."--Albert Camus, "The Plague"

"Mankind can never be free until the last brick in the last church falls on the head of the last priest."--Voltaire

The following press conference is the first public mention of AIDS in the Reagan White House. At that time 200 Americans had died of a new infectious disease. Reagan himself did not mention AIDS for three more years.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

PRESS BRIEFING BY LARRY SPEAKES

October 15, 1982

The Briefing Room

12:45pm EDT

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement ­ the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What's AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It's known as "gay plague." (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it's a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don't.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn't answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President ­

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.

Q: Does the President, does anyone in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there's been any ­

Q: Nobody knows?

MR. SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping ­

MR. SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he's had no ­ (laughter) ­ no patients suffering from AIDS or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn't have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?

MR. SPEAKES: No, I didn't say that.

Q: Didn't say that?

MR. SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn't you stay there? (Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you Larry, that's why (Laughter.)

MR. SPEAKES: Oh I see. Just don't put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Kathy Griffin pushes him out of the closet all the time with winks and innuendo, to which he willingly submits because he says OK to be with her.

I think he is not a closet case. He just doesn't announce it publicly. But last year he really pursued some stories where it was obvious his vested interest.The harrassment of the gay student president at U o Michigan, case in point. I think he milked that story much longer than any viewer was interested in. I wonder if that was accidental or a kind of Freudian slip - maybe he was blind to the over investment - but I doubt it.

(Oh, could I please have back the 2 hours I just spent chatting with a denialist, online? WTF is it with those people? I don't get the dedication to denial. Its maddening to discuss. They simply don't see their poor rationales. Their own denial...)

We also don't know what contract he had to get that show. I think things have changed greatly just in the last year or two, about what mass audience will deal with and find ultimately uninteresting. I don't think ANYONE right or left has given Rachel Maddow any smack about being lesbian. So maybe AC sees that he doesn't have to be so hush hush. Also, he IS getting older. Time to mellow, be more truthful. Hes doing up that great house in the west village. He's hardly in the closet socially.

It's funny to me how the brevity of the special was mentioned (2 mins per year), yet in this very thread on this very forum, many seem far more interested in Anderson Cooper than the subject of the show.

If we can't be more focused than that, we're pressed to expect more from the public at large.

It's funny to me how the brevity of the special was mentioned (2 mins per year), yet in this very thread on this very forum, many seem far more interested in Anderson Cooper than the subject of the show.

If we can't be more focused than that, we're pressed to expect more from the public at large.

Yeah, I've always found him quite hot. Anderson, on the other hand, quite not.

Logged

"I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else."

It's funny to me how the brevity of the special was mentioned (2 mins per year), yet in this very thread on this very forum, many seem far more interested in Anderson Cooper than the subject of the show.

If we can't be more focused than that, we're pressed to expect more from the public at large.

No the two have been discussed in this thread, specifically to ponder how image and content relate. It's Larry Kramer who brings up the point of Cooper being a closet case - so what to expect? And also his well known tendency to star fuck and the fact that he's a hottie (to many) so we tend to give him passes.

In fact all those themes are combined so I think its an interesting thread and topic to consider.

Logged

“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

(Dachshund, a little birdie says that you are writing comments on my posts. Just note, I have you on ignore. Retort to the board all you want. I don't see them, unless someone else deems to repost them in quotations, which is rare. Just wanted to say, have a nice life.)

Logged

“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need” 1875 K Marx

(Dachshund, a little birdie says that you are writing comments on my posts. Just note, I have you on ignore. Retort to the board all you want. I don't see them, unless someone else deems to repost them in quotations, which is rare. Just wanted to say, have a nice life.)

I re-iterate, though I understand the function and purpose of the "ignore" feature, you use it against prolific posters in an online forum at your own peril.

You are not stopping the conversation, only depriving yourself the opportunity to participate. In that sense, it's really more of a self-punishment to a large degree.

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"Many people, especially in the gay community, turn to oral sex as a safer alternative in the age of AIDS. And with HIV rates rising, people need to remember that oral sex is safer sex. It's a reasonable alternative."

(Dachshund, a little birdie says that you are writing comments on my posts. Just note, I have you on ignore. Retort to the board all you want. I don't see them, unless someone else deems to repost them in quotations, which is rare. Just wanted to say, have a nice life.)

He's written three comments in an attempt to stir shit with you, yet added absolutely nothing insightful or meaningful to the conversation on his own.

Wow, from my perspective, that show really sucked. The guy with the grey beard said he was diagnosed in 1981(Not possible. HIV wasn't established until 1985, after a fight between DR. Gallo and the french.)

Then this same person said "I take my meds and go on with my life."

Really. Talk about sugar coating. He has no problems at all? Great. Now everyone who saw this show thinks HIV is a walk in the park.

This guy did a dis service to his own community. Though I'm not sure what world he lives in.

I'm usually all for any press HIV/AIDS gets. I am seriously going to rethink that. Through my eyes, this show was more harmful than good. By far. And I agree, one hour does such a complex issue no good.

This was very disappointing.

Saw the program and felt exactly the same way as you that the program did not actively portray what it's like living with AIDS. I think it was more about helping relieve the stigma around AIDS. But it also sent a message out, to me at least, you just take your meds, and all is fine. That really pissed me off, because all is not fine after taking these meds for 15 years and all they are doing to our body let alone the virus. Not to mention the ridiculous costs of HIV medications.

Talking with random survivors and having them tell there stories would be more effective. Having HIV/AIDS even now is not a cakewalk as we all know. And creating the illusion all is well with life once on meds gives the illusion then it is ok to take risks if it is so controllable.

I do have to give Anderson Cooper some credit in the respect he tried to bring up some more controversial questions and get some real answers from the panel, who, with the exception of Sir Elton John, were rather sugar coating the situation with all due respect.

The special could have been much better in my opinion. And needed more than an hour to encompass 30 years of the virus.